Seiyo of Tomorrow
by Tsuki no kimi
Summary: When the Guardians graduate from their childhood haunt, what kind of characters could take their place if a student council was set up rather than Guardians? A series of vignettes on all the characters. All-OC cast .
1. I: Affection

No flamers, spammers, trolls, haters, or Mary-Sues.

Really, I've run all of them through the litmus test. So no worries.

Based off our roleplay. Come join, and you might find your character getting a ficlet in here, too! ;D

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****Title: I: Affection**

**Pairing: AkiraxHazuki, friendship**

**Rated: K for fluff and reference to _feminine products_.**

I: Affection

He had _given _them an allotted time to eat, dammit! So why was that girl still eating?

"Want some, Merun-chan?" the girl in question asked suddenly, fishing some cake in a Tupperware container out from the _inside of her sleeve_.

"O-okay," Hinasaki Meru managed, pinching a piece with her fingers. Akira coughed pointedly and glared at her. "Haven't you already eaten, Akifuji-san?"

"Hrmm?" She swallowed the cake with some difficulty. "... Yeah?"

"_Yes_," he corrected her through gritted teeth. God knows why she spoke in yanki slang.

"No need to say yes to me, Kira-nee," she grinned maliciously, showing off that accursed fang of hers.

"Can you put that _away_, Akifuji-san?" Akira asked, trying to regain his composure.

"No."

He hadn't expected her to say 'no' flat out. What was he supposed to say to this?

He stared pointedly at Meru, trying to get her to convince her best friend to be reasonable, but she had gotten out a book and was reading it upside-down, face red without her reading glasses on.

"Put it away." Direct order would work?

"No."

"Now."

"No."

What was wrong with this girl? Was she PMSing? He got up and snatched it away. "There. Now will you listen?"

"C –!!"

Hazuki – hang on, Akifuji-san – stared at him in horror, at a loss for words. "C-Cake-chan! You kidnapper! Cradle-snatcher!"

"I'll give it back to you when we've finished discussing budget!" he barked at her, feeling a bit pre-menstrual himself. Not that he had even had cycle, in case you haven't noticed the fact that he's a boy.

He should have noticed the plotting in her eyes, but he didn't – instead, he let her sit and sulk in her chair while he and Meru made a vain attempt at a meeting. When the bell rang, Hazuki got up off the floor where she had been playing with the strap of Akira's bag, and gave him a sunny smile. "Bye, Kira-nee!"

He gave her a halfhearted wave back, glad she seemed to have recovered remarkably fast. Meru seemed to linger longer though, piling all her papers back into her binder and fidgeting with her interlocked fingers.

"Something wrong, Hinasaki-san?" Akira inquired, getting up. She jerked her head up, blushing furiously again for some reason. "U-uh, no! No."

He smoothed over his concerned look – Meru looked like she was having an internal struggle with herself – and walked out the door. He was halfway down the hall before he tripped.

Normally, he didn't trip (that was more Meru's thing), but he supposed it was just a sad twist of fate... but then his bag upturned and out spilled several tampons.

Hazuki, on the far side of the wall, burst out laughing. Clearly he had found his culprit, but he was too busy blushing furiously to do anything about it.

SHE IS DEAD. SHE IS GOING TO DIE, GOD DAMMIT, AND ANYONE WHO DOESN'T THINK SO CAN JUST GO TO HE –

"Hazu-chan, have you seen my tampons – OH." Meru suddenly froze mid-sentence and broke out into a sweat. "Oh, er, Kamishiro-kun..."

"Would you like to pick those up, Hinasaki-san?" Akira said awkwardly, shooting the whole group of students an icy glare.

Screw Hazuki. He'd hang them all by the rafters until their faces turned purple.

*

"Kamishiro-kun?" a voice said meekly, barely heard over the sound of the fire crackling in the student council room. It was after school.

"Hinasaki-san?" Akira said cautiously, turning around in his chair.

"Ca-can I sit down?" she said meekly, blushing furiously again. She seemed to go red for the oddest reasons... but then again, she was probably just relieving the whole scene.

"Go right ahead," he said, trying to smile, but he was pretty sure it came out as more of a leer because she shuddered. "Um... are you over that whole thing with the tampons yet – O-OH, I GUESS NOT," she said hastily as a dark aura began to pour off him in sheets. "Well, I just kind of wanted to talk to you for a minute."

He looked up at her, puzzled. Her wanting to have some kind of in-depth serious talk was just about as likely to happen as if she started spouting philosophy or being able to find Korea on a map. "Alright?"

She smiled warmly – and for a minute, he felt his stomach flip-flop. "You know, Hazu-chan... is a really good person, and she really loves people. But she often has a weird way of showing it."

"Oh?"

"W-well, in elementary school, she used to tease me a lot. She'd often tell people stuff about me that wasn't necessarily true..."

"You mean... she'd spread rumors about you?" That little twerp was going to die.

"No..." she looked thoughtful. "Well, I got a bunch of people asking me if I really was a magical girl who fought aliens for truth and justice in my spare time."

Akira choked on his tea.

"But... really... for Hazuki, playing tricks is how she shows affection."

*

"Um... Akira-kun?"

"Yes, Hinasaki-sa – oh, it's you." Akira tried his best to keep the snarl out of his voice and keep himself appearing emotionless.

Hazuki blinked for a minute – he supposed she hadn't been on the receiving end of his anger yet – but then seemed to shrug it off. "So you are PMSing, huh..."

"Don't be stupid."

"It wasn't me!" there was such realistic defense in her voice that, for a minute, he was almost positive she didn't.

"Well then, who did?" he said frostily.

She seemed to think for a minute. "Kizuha."

"Gesundheit."

"No, Kizuha!" there was ultimate conviction in her voice. "Don't tell me you don't know her?"

"Enlighten me," he said sarcastically, but, seemingly unaware of it, she ploughed on. "She's this girl."

"Who goes to our school?"

"... Well, no. She doesn't go to school."

"Well! A truant!"

"Mmmm... indeed."

There was silence then. Hang on... how the hell was that possible? Silence was not allowed in Hazuki's presence! He had never seen that girl shut up once!

"Akira-kun?" He stiffened. When she acknowledged his gender, she must be serious. "Y-yes, Akifuji-san?"

"I'm sorry."

He turned around and stared at Hazuki, who was looking extremely embarrassed and uncomfortable. "It's just... I was..."

He tilted his head to the side.

"Well, I was mad that you took my cake."

"... what?"

"My cake! I was mad that you took i – "

"YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME – THIS WAS ALL OVER CAKE?! – YOU HORRIBLE, EVIL LITTLE...."

"Pfft! Merun-chan, Akira's going tsundere on us!" Hazuki suddenly tackled him violently. "OW, GET OFF – I AM NOT –"

"Haha, he's spazzing!" Merun, appearing out of nowhere, giggled from behind her hand. "Hazu-nin, get off him, you're suffocating..."

"NOT UNTIL HE GIVES ME MY CAKE BACK."


	2. II: Unstable

**Title: II. Unstable**

**Pairing: MeruxAkira, (unhealthy?) romance?**

**Rating: M for blood, gore, and creepy yandereness.**

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II. Unstable

Meru had thought he was normal, kind even. At times she had felt an attraction, at other times something _more_, but it was altogether rare for Meru to feel repulsion at Kamishiro Akira.

Moreover, it had never happened. Not even the one fateful time that repulsion would have saved her.

No matter how unstable he was, no matter how much tumult she knew was in his mind, she could never hate him, not when he smiled that kind smile, or helped her or Hazuki with their student council paperwork or assignments.

In fact, Hinasaki Meru would be ashamed to admit it, but sometimes she found herself favoring him over her best friend.

It had been so brief and yet terrifying that she had almost erased it from her mind; brushed it off as a nightmare; it _had_ been the middle of the night.

They – the whole student council – had been forced to stay almost until midnight at the school; something that seemed important at the time but wasn't so conspicuous in the long run had kept all three of them (even Hazuki, who had whined) working diligently in the student council room, the fire dying down to glowing coals as pens scratched on paper.

"Um," Meru had managed, getting up, and Akira's dark head had jerked up from where he had been turning catatonic over a stack of envelopes. "Um... I'll be back. I just need to run to the teacher's room and get something."

Akira had turned his head back to the paper blithely. When Meru looked back on it later, she was going to wish that she had maybe looked at the back of his head a little longer, seen him sane one more time.

When she came back, she instantly knew something had gone terribly, terribly wrong. Hazuki's cup of tea on the table had tipped over and its contents were making a dark stain that was blooming out through the fabric of the carpet. There was red, too much of it – on the floor, on the table, making handprints on the windowsill. _What had happened, what had happened? _Hazuki herself was nowhere to be found.

"H-Hazuki?" Meru's voice barely came out as a squeak. Where was Akira? Both their armchairs were empty. "Hazuki!" she called louder, but there was still a swelling silence that was threatening to swallow her up. Her voice seemed to echo off the windows, where the curtains were still rustling faintly from where someone had brushed against them. One of the panes of glass was smashed through.

It took several minutes for Meru to manage to move her leg forward toward the broken window shards when her carnal instinct was screaming at her to run away. She had long ago dismissed the idea of Hazuki spilling her tea and her and Akira going out to find towels. This was too... wrong. Akira was still somewhere here.

"A-Akira!" she managed again, turning away from the window. Her heart rate speeding up so that she could hear it thumping in her ears, painfully loud, so that any warning of footsteps was blocked out. Her legs were being useless, reduced to wobbling and barely supporting her body. "AKIRA!"

She needed him now, needed his kind smile to show itself and for him to assure that it was all her imagination, Hazuki had gone out to look for her and he was here, nothing was happening... thoughts flitted in and out through her head at breakneck pace, each more incoherent than the next.

"Meru-chan?" a voice murmured softly from the other side of the room. Somebody was standing in front of the door, a bloodred figure with dark strands of hair plunging into his eyes.

It wasn't Akira. _This _wasn't Akira, this monster in front of her who had scarlet spilled down the front of his shirt and spattered across his face and a feral grin that stretched and marred his cheeks. A kitchen knife – it was a French knife, she guessed – was held loosely in his grasp, smeared red to the hilt and dripping onto the floor. "There you are... I was getting so worried you weren't going to come back to me."

Meru needed to scream. Right now. There were no teachers in the building, her brother and sister and her family was all at home... nobody she could call for help. "W-who a-_are _you?"

"Don't be silly." The words sounded harmless, but they came out like an icy sharp snarl. "I'm Akira, who else would it be?" his laugh started off a harmless giggle, but started bordering on maniacal laughter.

"I – Akir – _where's Hazuki_?!" Meru said urgently, her heartbeat deafening.

His laugh slowly subsidized into small breaths. "Why do you need Hazuki? Aren't you fine with me?"

_No. I'm not fine with you. As much as I love you right now, I need to run away and go get Hazuki, who I know has knives up her sleeves and a katana hidden in the student council closet. _

Meru took a deep breath. She needed the sword Hazuki kept in the closet... but it was on the same door as the wall. She slowly started inching past the smashed window, lower lip trembling. "Please, Akira... please tell me where Hazuki is..."

"I disposed of her." His eyelids lowered over his widened eyes, and licked a bit of bright red – _that can't be blood, please let it not be blood_ – off the corner of his mouth.

"D-disposed? What does that mean?!" her voice reached such a high pitch that it sounded like someone else's voice.

"Simple." He nodded his chin, which had a red line tracing his jawline, towards one of the chairs – the far one, where nobody sat. A lot of the blood seemed to be coming from over there. "Take a look for yourself." His tone was kind, inviting, but his tiny pupils gleamed hungrily and his smile widened as he took a step closer.

"N-no, I don't want to..."

His head lolled onto one shoulder, letting more hair fall between his eyes. "I'll go help you then, won't I?"

"N-NO!" she yelped, stumbling forward and falling to her knees. "Don't – "

Quietly moving over to the chair, and leaning against it so that it moved across the floor with a deafening sound, brought himself even closer to the terrified girl. He revealed a bloody, mangled mess that couldn't be a human – couldn't be _Hazuki_ –

"Y-You didn't do that!" she said, still in her unnaturally high-pitched voice, pointing to it with a shaking finger. "_Why? _You like Ha-Hazuki; she's your f-friend."

He started licking more blood off his finger, taking another step closer and looking impassively at the body of his fellow student council member. "I hate her. If she goes away, then you won't have to do it any more... pretend that you like her... I can keep you all to myself." His grin stretched wide again, moving forward quicker, closer. "I _hate _sharing, and now I don't have to do it any more. You like me more, don't you, Merun-chan...?" They were touching foreheads. Too close. She could hear him breathing quickly; almost hear his heart, which was thudding at a pace even faster than hers. Tears rose to her eyes, and she backed away, stumbling again. Walking straight was failing her at the most important of times. Them quietly working on paperwork, yawning... it all seemed a million years ago, some fake cardboard scene. She was going in the wrong direction, needed the katana that Hazuki had left her... _did she know this would happen? No. of course not. _

She felt the cold copper of the closet door handle, and she wrenched it open. What was this – wooden shelving, the side of a plastic bottle – an iron hot water pipe – and the smooth handle of a _saya_, the scabbard of Hazuki's katana. She traced the golden letters _A-ki-fu-ji _down the enamel and grabbed it. As she tore the gleaming silver out of its wrappings, she tried to remember almost anything she could that would come in useful. Hazuki seemed to be whispering in her ear, _here, Merun-chan... You have to put your feet farther apart and hold the sword in front of you. You're aiming for a gap in the ribs, because that's where the heart is. Well... you aren't going to actually kill them, obviously. _

_I'm sorry, Hazuki, _she though miserably to herself. Her hands were shaking, and on her first thrust Akira caught the blade, unaware of the sudden new blood dripping through his fingers. "What are you trying to do?"

She didn't say anything. Slowly, she just sank to the floor and felt warm paths of tears making their way down her face. She gave up. She was going to die. At least it was Akira, the one boy that she wasn't afraid of... except for now.

Akira moved above her, and suddenly she fainted.

*

"H-Hinasaki-san!" A voice cried above her, and she opened her eyes to see Akira. She reacted by screaming and backing up against a wall, feeling around the floor for the katana. "N-NO!"

"Wh-what is it?" his pupils were filling up most of his eyes again, and there was less blood than she had thought. There were small splotches under the chair, and still a brown circle and a china-patterned cup on the carpet. He went on, pale as a ghost, and wiping a bit of blood off his cheek. "Th-there was an accident, something happened to Akifuji-san."

"Y-you killed her!" tears rose in her eyes again and threatened to spill over.

"No I didn't!" he replied automatically. "B-because..." he took a deep breath. "I-I can't remember what happened to her. The paramedics said that I was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder."

Meru stood still, staring at him with wide eyes. Maybe it was all a dream. Or, maybe he just didn't remember.

Akira's voice broke. "I can't remember anything that happened... just... you saying you needed to go to the teacher's room. And then it's all blank." He looked miserable and confused, like a small lost child. "And... I'm all covered in blood!" he suddenly yelped, backing up and looking repulsed. "So are you!"

Meru turned her body around and stared at her reflection in the mirror across the room. Smudges of crimson had been transferred from Akira's face to hers, and bits of the boy in front of her's blood were on her hands from the katana, which wasn't lying where she left it. "Where did the katana go?" Meru asked.

He didn't say '_what katana?'_

"Th-they took it away. For Hazuki. It's a family heirloom." Who were 'they'? Sunrise was starting over the horizon. She had spent the whole night at the school?

Akira's shoulders started shaking, and without thinking, she swiftly embraced him, where he rested his forehead on her shoulder. Meru could hear him breathing at a normal pace as his arms curled loosely around her waist and she automatically played with his hair absent-mindedly. His hair still had dried blood in it, and she resisted the urge to shudder as she spotted something on the floor. A piece of paper where the katana had lain was lying innocently, just a few feet away. It must have fallen out of the sheath in her panic. Sliding out a hand to grab it, she saw Hazuki's cramped, loopy writing.

_For when he collapses._


	3. III: Goodbyes

**Title:**** III: Goodbyes**

**Pairing:**** AkiraxMeru, Friendship/Romance**

**Rated: K**

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III. Goodbyes

Meru stared at the crowded airport terminal, trying to keep the worried look off her face when she see didn't the familiar effeminate dark head in the crowd. "H-Hazu-nin..."

The orange-blonde's head jerked up. "Eh? What is it, Merun-chan?"

"A-Akira didn't say if he was coming or not, did he?" she asked nervously, trying to sound casual. She wasn't sure if it had worked – Hazuki's look was a little _too _sympathetic – but she replied anyway. "I'm not really sure."

He was angry. She could just tell. She had been a coward, obviously, by not telling Akira herself that she was leaving. Hazuki had been easy – it took a lot more to get her miserable – but Akira was different... broody, somehow. And, as she'd predicted, he had clearly looked rather hurt when he ended up hearing it out of Hazu and not her. But what else was she supposed to do?

"France is far away," Hazuki remarked nervously, fidgeting with the end of her dress. "U-uh, you'll write, right?"

"Y-Yeah." Meru was still craning her neck for Akira when Hazuki pushed her. "Go! That's you?"

"E-eh?"

"The flight for Paris, right? They just called you." Hazuki's lower lip was trembling, and she scanned the airport as Meru tried not to cry. "I-I guess... 'Bye. Will you tell Akira-kun goodbye, too?"

"Hinasaki-san!" a voice yelled. Akira was standing there, looking very panicked, not to mention tired. Meru was all-to-conscious of the fact that Hazuki had suddenly evaporated. "I – I – "

"K-Kamishiro-kun!" Meru turned around and tried to smile. "I... thought you weren't going to show up."

"O-Of... course I would," he finished lamely. "Because – you're my – "

Meru felt her cheeks heat up, and suddenly felt extremely glad that Hazuki wasn't there.

(Hazuki was, in fact, at the airport McDonald's buying French fries. Boy, did she like McDonald's French fries.)

"You're my... what, Kamishiro-kun?"

"You know, you could just call me Akira," he blurted out.

"A-ki-ra-kun," she gave him a timid smile. "You still haven't told me."

"What?"

"Why you were late."

"I..." he trailed off as he looked up and wound up locking eyes with Meru.

(Later, Hazuki would say that they locked _more _than just eyes. Akira would deny everything).

"I-It's okay, you know," Meru said awkwardly, shifting from foot to foot. "I know you're mad at me."

Akira's head jerked up, and his eyes echoed something. "I'm not really... mad... I'm just... angry... no, I'm not!" he said hastily as the hazel eyes in front of him began to tear up. "I meant... that I guess I'm scared."

"O-of?" Meru prompted.

_Losing you. _"Being alone with Akifuji-san?"

"She's not scary," Meru laughed. Just then, the announcer called, _Final flight leaving for Paris from Tokyo_...

"Y-You'd better go," Something seemed to be wrong with Akira's voice, and she realized that it was shaking.

"Oh yeah... and, Kamishiro-kun?" Meru looked up at him with that goddamned innocent smile. "If I ever hear that you went out with _anyone _in the six-month period I'm gone, I'll make sure Hazuki castrates you and steals your lunch money every morning until I get back."

He blinked, confused at the random personality change, but then she was gone; skipping away toward the creepy grinning men at Customs. For the long, long weeks to come, Akira would ponder that sentence and come up with futile results. But he _did _remind himself not to go near his fanclub until Meru got back. After all, Hazuki was _srs business_.


	4. IV: Ultimatum

**Title:**** IV: Ultimatum**

**Pairing:**** HazukixIzumi, Romance**

**Rated:**** K**

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IV: Ultimatum

"The-The truth is..." Hinasaki Izumi looked away, willing the color in his cheeks to go down. This was the part where you would use a metaphor, right? It was an essential part of a confession; girls just totally flip for metaphors...

"The truth is, I love you more than chocolate pudding," he blurted out, and immediately wanted to hit himself. Okay, yeah, so he had an... Unnatural obsession with chocolate pudding, but did he HAVE to say it like that? It sounded weird.

*

The next time he saw Hazuki, it was in his kitchen a few days later. There was some kind of pudding – _his _pudding – on top of the refrigerator with an anvil hovering on top of it, and Hazuki was standing right next to it with her golden eyes flashing dangerously. "So... Izu-rin... how _much _do you love your chocolate pudding?"

He assumed this was the answer to his confession.


	5. V: Masculinity

**Title: V: Masculinity  
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**Pairing: Akira-centric, General  
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**Rated: K**

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V: Masculinity

Akira was manly. Really, he was manly! This was why he decided to cut his ponytail off.

It was when he accidentally cut himself with the scissors and screamed like a little girl that he decided that it wasn't necessarily the _ponytail _that was causing the gender mix-up...


	6. VI: Rhapsody

**Title: VI: Rhapsody  
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**Pairing: AkiraxMeru, Romance/Poetry  
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**Rated: K for fluff~**

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VI: Rhapsody

_Her hair is like... a whitey-blond waterfall-thing_

_Her eyes are like melted pools of chocolate_

_Her skin is like... bunnies_

_And when she smiles I almost feel like jumping off a cliff._

Akira decided that poems were a low art and that he'd try and put his feelings into words some other way.


	7. VII: Personality

**Title: VII: Personality  
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**Pairing: N/A, Friendship/Humor  
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**Rated: T for Hazuki's comment about raccoons **

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VII: Personality

Hazuki had some weird ideas, sure, but nothing had been as bad as her "animal psychology" phase.

It had been her birthday during March break, and when she came back she was babbling her head off about the book she had gotten for her birthday all about discovering your personality through your favourite animal.

"'Neecha~n!" Green plaid suddenly appeared in front of his line of vision, and he glanced up to see Hazuki grinning craftily at him with the air of presenting a Christmas present.

"Can you... at least use the masculine equivalent so that people don't get _confused_?" Akira asked pointedly, staring particularly ferociously at a boy behind him who was covered in shojo sparkles. _Neechan? _So this was what a little sister was like. Pure hell.

"Whatever." Hazuki displayed a book out so quickly that her hair fluttered in the slipstream. "Look what I got for my birthday!" The girl was thirteen now? What a shame she still acted like she was six. The book read _Animal Psyche Tests _in glaring white letters. "Since when have you been interested in Psyche Tests, Akifuji-san?"

"Well," Hazuki looked over her shoulder in mild discomfort. "My aunt said it would help me on the road to... self-acutuali..." she struggled on the word.

"Self-actualization?" Meru prompted, appearing at Akira's side.

"Yes, that." Hazuki let it fall open. "Okay – I'll start. My favourite animal is a raccoon, because they're sneaky, look cool, and eat leftovers." She looked it up. "Raccoon... '_You can easily deceive your enemies with your seemingly innocent, friendly, and outgoing appearance. A raccoon means that you have bandit-like qualities, have a shy streak, and remarkable determination when you're not being lazy." _

Meru stifled a laugh. "Somewhat accurate."

"_...'Raccoons are very good in bed.'_"

Silence.

"What's your favourite animal, Merun?" Hazuki asked, hastily changing the subject.

Meru, startled at being addressed (she thought she was being ninja and going under the radar), thought about it for a minute. "D-Deer. Because..." her cheeks reddened. "Th-they're cute."

Akira repressed a snort and Meru whirled on him. "A-and, _Bambi _was my favourite movie growing up – "

" '_Deer represents the feminine side of humanity, as well as gentleness, grace, and possibly love. The deer stands for intelligence, virility – " _

"H-Hazu-nin, what does _virility _mean?" Hazuki broke off and started giggling frantically. "U-Uh, Akira can tell you."

Akira's eyes bugged out, giving Hazuki a glare. She stuck out her tongue at him as he turned to her awkwardly.

"Well, it means, er... Manliness."

Sure it did. Meru, however, looked satisfied. "What's your favourite animal, Akira-kun?"

Akira started at being addressed to, and looked uncomfortable. "I-I don't like animals."

Meru started tearing up.

"Hinasaki-sa – !" Akira leapt out of his seat as the smaller girl buried her face in her hands. "A-AKIRA-KUN! HOW CAN YOU SAY THAT?"

He awkwardly patted her on the back, but Meru curled her arms around his neck and leaned herself dangerously close to his face before saying, "You don't _REALLY _hate animals... right?"

Akira seemed to sense something _definitely _un-Merun-like was going on here, but he just leaned back slightly and said, "U-uh... well...". Hazuki just looked extremely impressed as Akira mumbled something into Meru's ear.

"EH? KAMISHIRO-SAN LIKES DOGS?!" she shouted, sliding out of close proximity and standing up.

"HINASAKI-SA – DON'T SAY THAT!"

"Dog... dog..." Hazuki muttered, running a finger down the index, and Akira groaned. "Really, I already know what my personality is like, Akifuji-san, so – "

" '_Dogs may symbolize intuition, loyalty, generosity, protection, and fidelity_.'" Hazuki read out.

"F-fidelity?!" Akira sputtered.

" '_Dogs are loyal friends, good companions, and PASSIONATE LOVERS.'_ " Hazuki raised her voice as she said the last part, and Akira felt his ears turning red. "... yeah, you know what? This ain't you at all. You aren't a loyal friend, good companion, and from what I hear from Merun you aren't very passionate at a – "

"H-HAZU-NIN!" Meru shouted so loudly that the whole classroom went quiet.

"What about fidelity?" Akira said weakly, once everyone had gone back to what they were doing. "I-I'm full of fidelity!"

"Are you... _really_, Kamishiro-san?" Hazuki asked, squinting her eyes accusingly at him. "Do you _really _believe that?" When she received no comment, she continued on. "Now, Akira, I think you are more like a whale."

"I hate whales!" As if on cue, Meru burst into tears again. After a great deal of soothing and mollycoddling, coupled with a particularly nasty whaling-off-the-coast-of-Japan lecture, Hazuki went on. "No, Akira-neechan. I think really, in the depths of your cold, dark heart, you really love whales. Look. '_Whales tend to be full of wisdom, power, and great strength. They provide good support for friends but are prone to long-winded lectures and stubbornness, and find it very hard to wrap up a speech or rant. They are also cleansers; forgiving but not very generous.' _" Hazuki and Meru both beamed at him. Creepy girls.

And Akira probably would have gotten madder if it hadn't been an indirect compliment.


	8. VIII: Sparkles

**Title: VIII: Sparkles  
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**Pairing: N/A, Humor  
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**Rated: K for references to Edward Cullen and Jacob Black_  
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VIII: Sparkles

"For the last time!" Akira snapped, turning around. "I'm _not _a vampire – I'm _not_!"

"Say what you like, Akira-nee," Hazuki giggled, beating the batter so ferociously that it threatened to fly out of the bowl. "But~ How do you explain that pale face of yours? The black hair? The radiating of coolness from every pore?"

"Not to mention the fact that he sparkles." Meru watched on mournfully as Akira and Hazuki baked, not being allowed to go near the bread they were both making in their Home Ec. groups.

Akira stopped dead. "I'm sorry – SPARKLE? Since when did vampires sparkle?" He knew he was baiting the crazy girls, but he couldn't resist. After all, he loved the classics and last time he checked, Count Dracula, Lord Ruthven, and Carmilla all did not sparkle.

"Of course they do, Kira-chan." Hazuki attempted to stick a finger in the bowl and Akira slapped her hand away, nearly having a heart attack (_GERMS!!!_). "I thought you owned a bunch of vampire books?"

"I do." Akira said stiffly. He had gone through a bit of a phase a couple years ago for vampire literature. "Bram Stoker, Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, John Williams Poldo – "

"Stephanie Meyer?" Meru prompted.

Akira stared blankly back at the two blondes, who were smiling expectantly at him. As if expecting him to start jumping up and turning cartwheels. "I, ah... can't say I've heard of her." As quick as they appeared, their twin beams slid off their faces faster than a pack of drunken girls in stilettos.

"You don't...?"

"Stepha... really?"

"No!" he snapped, starting to knead the dough with ferocity. He felt rather grumpy at not knowing this... Meyer person.

"H-here, Kamishiro-kun." Meru handed him a book, smiling like a child on Christmas. It was black, with eerie ghostly hands cradling an apple. _S T E P H A N I E M E Y E R _ was spelled across the bottom in white letters.

"What's this?"

"Twilight," they said in reverent voices.

"..."

"Jacob is mine," Hazuki said dreamily, leaning against the counter. Meru whirled on her. "NO! I called dibs on Jacob first!"

"But I love him more!" the orange-blond yelled back.

"Fine then – I get Edward!"

"WHAT?!"

"You can't have them both!"

Akira sighed, and slid the book off to the side. Clearly, the standards for vampire novels were falling like a sack of frozen turkeys off an airplane.


	9. IX: Toying

**Title: IX: Toying  
**

**Pairing: HazukixIzumi, Romance/Angst  
**

**Rated: T for Hazu-Angst**

**

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**

IX: Toying

Hazuki looked upon her relationship with Hinasaki Izumi as Alice and her adventures in Wonderland. Hazuki was Alice, the naïve little girl who entered the older boy's world, where he had grown up among adults and acted accordingly. Izumi was Wonderland itself – attractive on the outside, but frighteningly capricious and risky.

As children, he and Meru and her would play as equals, as children, but it was like his internal hourglass kept running sand, and every time it turned, Hazuki turned as well and saw him farther away. By the time she was graduating elementary school, he was practically unrecognizable.

Of course, since they were children, she should have seen this coming. Hazuki was his plaything, the loyal servant that would come crawling back to him when the latest girlfriend had walked away, when Meru couldn't be burdened. It was her duty, was obligated to do it.

Because why?

She was Alice, in his territory, the outsider who got fooled. Meru was maybe the purely symbolic Queen of Hearts, who pretended to have Izumi under her control but really was just there for show, for appearances. A façade. And if Alice turned against Wonderland, it could turn against her as well.

Hazuki flipped through the dry pages of Lewis Carroll. Alice really didn't _want _to go home, did she? She liked Wonderland, loved it even – it was just more thrilling to play a game of death than go home.

The aforementioned game of death was more like toying, really. Hazuki was his toy, easily replaceable, easily discarded.

Still, this never stopped her from hoping that one day he would look back, and see what his toy had become.


	10. X: Alternative

**Title: X: Alternative  
**

**Pairing: AkiraxMeru, Friendship (slight romance)  
**

**Rated: T-M for Hazu's comments on Meruo's usual girlfriends and Meruo's innuendos**

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X: Alternative

_Philosophers have, and always will, have complete field days with ideas such as Time Paradox and Anthropic Principle. The Time Paradox theory delves into the world of time travel. They ask, what would happen if you killed your younger self, or your parents, or grandparents before you were conceived? Would you die? Or would a new, separate timeline open up? The Anthropic Principle explores the power of humanity, and whether something really exists if nobody is there to observe its existence. There's another idea, as well: In anime, when budgets are going down and the producers need a way to get a dead character back to life, parallel universes are often a convenient excuse. Come on; you've seen it employed in _The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya_ and _11eyes_. Just... admit it. It's a convenient excuse. _

_But, I'm probably losing you at this point. I mean, I'm the only one who watches those animes, right? Akira says I need to stop being such an otaku and take Physics next year instead of ranting about Anthropomorphic Principals or whatever. He's probably right. _

_All the same, sometimes I like to kid myself that there are several Hazuki Akifuji's, scattered across the universe. Maybe they're different, maybe they aren't even friends with the alternate-universe Akira who tells them they're an otaku. Who knows. _

_I don't know why I'm even saying this anyway. _

"Akifuji-san, will you put down the instant ramen? I don't want you getting it on anything," Akira asked, jumping up and pulling the forms safely from underneath Hazu's bowl.

"A-Ah... I'm sorry, Akira-chan." Hazu hastily put it down and tried to rearrange his features into a convincing smile. He was secretly brokenhearted and wanted to slap that bitch for making him stop eating his precious food.

"You're too obedient, Hazu," Meruo lazily put his feet up on the table. "Are you really going to let her order you around like that?"

"You shut up," Akira fired back irritably at the platinum-blonde boy. He, in turn, raised his eyebrows at her. "Awwww. I've touched one of Akira-neechan's nerves."

"YOU HAVEN'T TOUCHED ANYTHING," she growled, rearranging pens in a line on the table and determinedly avoiding Meruo's gaze.

"Haven't I now?" He gave her a very eerie smile, which Hazu saw as a warning signal. "Akira-chan – you – might want to – "

"I would have touched _far _more by now if you weren't being such a goody-goody stick-in-the-mud." Meruo rolled his eyes at his best friend, who was breaking out into a panic. "Really, Meru-kun, you're being kind of – "

"Because – really – who hasn't been to third base yet? Men don't like women with no experience. Well, unless they're lolicons, but – "

"I'm sorry," she said icily, uncapping a pen and spinning it in his direction threateningly. "Are you implying that I have _no experience_?"

"No, of course he's no – " Hazu tried to jump in, but failed once again. _Why? _he wondered miserably. _How did I become so damn lacking in moral fibre? While we're at it, why am I so small – and wimpy – and why hasn't my voice cracked, dammit! _

Hazu was probably the exact opposite of his best friend, who was an extroverted, shameless playboy who put his older sister the notorious whore a kind girl who didn't quite know what kind of boyfriend she wanted yetto shame. He had probably gone out with every girl in the school at least once, some twice, and now usually imported his exotic girlfriends from other schools. Except for this year. Where, for reasons Hazu didn't even want to try to fathom, he had devoted his time to pursuing Kamishiro Akira. Okay, she was _cute_, and she was _twintailed_ – but she was fucking scary. Already this year, he had gotten yelled at twice (Although, he hoped he had made that nasty old bag feel guilty by crying – that'll fix her! She made the shota cry!). Meruo had gotten yelled at much more than him, though. Way more. He felt like trying to tell Meruo that you don't exactly make the Akiras of this world happy by hitting on them repeatedly, but the poor kid had very little experience with decent women.

(Well now, it's not his usual girlfriends aren't... _decent_... they're just a little... well, one day he visited Meruo's house and a lady wearing nothing but lingerie opened the door, ruffled his hair, and called him _cute_. Another one seemed rather confused and drunk and seemed to think that he was Meru's little brother. Point made?)

Still – Meruo was a good head of the music department and a hard worker, which had gained the dark-haired girl's respect.

When Hazu jerked out of his reverie, Meruo had moved right next to Akira and was giving her the casual smirk that had charmed most of his ex-girlfriends. Roughly. "Now, Kira-chan, no need to get all flustered and angry. We all know that you really have an incredible liking for me."

"What are you talking about? I hate you." His grin just widened, and Hazu sat in a rather impressed trance over the lengths he was willing to go to melt the block of ice in front of him.

"Really? Do you _really _believe that?"

Akira nodded curtly, trying to shove his face away, but he just caught her wrist in his hand. Hazu pretended to silently read, but kept an eye focused on Meruo's other hand, should he push the barrier.

"Why did you let me join the student council, then? And _why _did you let me do that to you?"

Hazu looked up the same time Akira did, completely forgetting about watching Meruo's wandering hands. Both of them were looking outraged at a very happy Meruo who was grinning like the Cheshire Cat. "A-Akira-chan? What did you let him do?"

"I – " her face had gone bright red, and, she tried even more desperately to shuffle away. She glared at Meruo. "DON'T TELL HIM!" She started muttering incoherently about not being able to get married and emotional exploitation.

"Y-You didn't deflower her, did you?" Hazu asked timidly, finishing his ramen furiously before Akira could stop him.

"No!" Meruo looked extremely embarrassed, which threw off warning signals. There was something else there, too – _fear_? Why would Meruo be afraid? He was the bravest person Hazu knew.

_He had been walking home. Until he noticed crying coming from around the corner. Meruo wasn't a nosy person, but whoever was crying had sounded so distressed and confused that he had felt his heart lurch. Before he knew it, he had broken into a run, following the cries. _

_He hadn't known that it would be Akira – curled up in the middle of a deserted alleyway, eyes wide and shaking, hands covered in blood. _

"_M-MERUO!" she had screamed, launched herself into his arms like in some gay Hurt/Comfort fanfiction and started sobbing uncontrollably. The hell?! What had happened to the angry, violent tsundere he had said goodbye to at school? This girl... was much different. _

"_Is that blood?" he asked, praying that she had just witnessed a brutal car accident. Or maybe it was ketchup. There were hot dog vendors around here, right...? _

"_I... don't know." She buried her face into his shirt. "I don't know." _

"_What do you mean?" _

"_I can't remember." _

"_How can you not remember how you got covered in blood?!" he demanded. "Did you pass out? Get raped?!" _

"_I don't know," she mumbled. "... well, probably not raped." _

"_Are you sure?" he asked, falling into a sitting position. _

"_Y-yes." There was conviction in her voice. "I'm fine, but I..." her blue eyes teared up again, and he brusquely did something that Meruo hardly ever did. He hugged her. _

For some reason, both of them turned and smiled all lovey-dovey at each other. Akifuji Hazu had a bad feeling about this, but who was he to stop the little lovebirds?

Now, all he had to do was convince Meruo that yanking a girl's ponytails was not the way to get them to go out with you.


End file.
